Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to ensure all police forces use Domestic Abuse Matters training programmes.

The Domestic Abuse Matters training, which was developed by the College of Policing, and in collaboration with SafeLives, with input from Women’s Aid and Welsh Women’s Aid, aims to improve the police response to domestic abuse, including the investigation of controlling or coercive behaviour offences and to achieve national consistency in the service police forces provide to people experiencing domestic abuse.

We expect police to treat all victims of domestic abuse with the sensitivity and compassion they deserve. Therefore, to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse and as part of our commitment in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan to support the development and further rollout of the Domestic Abuse Matters training, we have committed up to £3.3 million up to 2025 to bolster and encourage the uptake of this training in forces. We will be prioritising funding for those forces who have yet to undertake the training yet. Forces in receipt of a funding contribution from the Home Office will be expected to update on progress through the quarterly monitoring requirements of grant agreements and an end of year assessment.

As part of this commitment, we are also funding the development of a new module of the training that is targeted at officers investigating domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domestic abuse incidents.